ANSWER
.....Chief Minister Musa Aman during the Question and Answer session at the
State Assembly.
By : ELAINE MAH
WHEN the Dewan Negeri
debated the 2013 State Budget yesterday Chief Minister Musa Aman made good his
recent promise to give the NCR issue a good airing at the (then) forthcoming
State Assembly meeting.
At the Dewan yesterday his
opportunity came when Kunak Assemblyman, Nilwan Kabang asked whether the
Government condoned the 'abolishment' of the NCR status of areas where the
local native community have occupied for a long time, and do so just in order
to enforce the provisions of the Sabah Land Ordinance.
The Chief Minister
vehemently denied there had been any such abolition.
"Accusations that the
State Government is sidelining NCR land claims and discriminating against
natives are totally untrue," he said and charged that the opposition had
twisted and manipulated the NCR issue to gain political mileage.
He assured the House that
the State Cabinet has the final administrative authority on land matters as
provided by the land law and NCR is still being administered as before and is
very much alive.
He told the House that
contrary to allegations Native Customary Right (NCR) land claims are getting
priority attention and are being dealt with administratively in accordance with
the state's land law.
"Natives wishing to
make any NCR claim under Section 14 of the Sabah Land Ordinance can still
submit their claim to the Assistant Collector of Land Revenue (ACLR)
notwithstanding the provisions under the 1930 amendment to the Land Ordinance,
" he said.
Giving a historical account
of the NCR provision of the land law, Musa told the House that the 13 December
1930 amendment to the Sabah Land Ordinance sought to regulate and check the
hitherto free-for-all situation involving land ownership.
As a result of the1930
amendment all land in then North Borneo became government land (now known as
state land). Following the amendment,
the occupation of state land by any native is subject to sections 5, 6(1), 65
and 88 of the Land Ordinance, whereby the occupation must comply with certain
criteria under the land law. If the occupation is found to be legitimate and
fulfill the criteria set out under section 15 of the Land Ordinance, the
occupation will be considered and recognized under NCR occupation and land
ownership may be granted.
The Chief Minister gave
statistics over a 15-year period between 1997 until September 2012 to show that
NCR has been alive and well. He disclosed that the Lands and Survey Department
received and registered 615 NCR land claims cases, involving 1,164 claimants.
Of these, 207 cases were given NCR recognition, 70 cases were found to be
groundless and were thus rejected while 338 cases are still under process.
Assuring the House that land
ownership by Sabah's natives is well provided for and protected in the state's
land administration, the Chief Minister listed five methods through which
natives could apply for land, and through which the State seeks to protect and
preserve native land ownership.
- The first method is to give ownership to natives through the
normal process of land application and approval. He said this process has been
on-going, as is indicated by the 190,452 Native Titles (NT) issued up to
December 2011 by the State Government through the Lands and Survey Department,
more than half of the 348,652 land titles issued during the period.
- The second method is for
natives to gain access to land that has been gazetted as a Natives Reserve, or
communal land, such as for grazing of livestock and village housing under
Section 78 of the Sabah Land Ordinance.
He said up to Dec 2011, a
total of 53,190.857 hectares had been gazetted for native communal use such as
village and grazing reserves.
- The third way is through a Communal Land Title under the
amended Section 76 of the Sabah Land Ordinance that was gazetted on Dec. 10,
2009.
According to the Chief
Minister, one reason for the issuance of Communal Land Titles is to protect the
interest of natives occupying state land or part of a forest reserve in the
vicinity of native village settlements.
He said a Communal Title has
distinct advantages. Through it the land alienation process can be speeded up
and the land title issued en bloc, thus resolving any NCR claim issue,
overlapping land applications and ensuring natives do not easily sell off their
land for quick money.
Musa said up to December
2011, seven Communal Land Titles were issued totaling 12,777.14 hectares for
2,661 beneficiaries in three districts.
He told the House that
another 52 Communal Titles covering 23,046.07 hectares would be issued to 5,373
beneficiaries in seven districts.
He said that the Communal Titles could at some point
in the future be sub-divided into individual lots should the beneficiaries so
wish, but not before the individual lots for which they seek separate titles
have been fully developed.
- There is the fourth avenue
for natives to have a stake in the land that they cultivate. This is in the
form communal grants, that is, the granting of land to government agencies for
in situ agricultural development in partnership with natives in the area on an
equitable basis.
Musa disclosed that the
state government is planning to issue communal grants in Kota Marudu, Pitas,
Tongod, and Semporna totaling to 47, 177 hectares.
- Finally, the fifth avenue
for natives of Sabah to have a share in land development and ownership is
through a government ruling under the Sabah Land Ordinance that requires large
companies with land holding 1000 hectares and above to give a 30% (or 45% if so
provided in the land title) native equity to native or government agencies in
trust for the natives. This ruling comes into force 5 years after the land is
fully developed.
Refuting once again the
allegations that the state government was letting down the natives with regard
to NCR, Musa told the Dewan how far the state government has been prepared to
go to accommodate and protect the interest of the natives.
“To allow for a few of these
communal grants to be issued, in 2010 the government excised 24, 563 hectares
of land from the Sook Plain forest reserve and Mandalom for the well-being of
the natives living in these areas.”
He also reminded the House
that he had even instructed the Forest Department to stop all re-delineation
survey of Forest Reserve boundaries that were alleged to have encompassed areas
claimed by the native communities in these areas.
To give members of the State
Assembly an idea of the size of native land holding in Sabah, the Chief
Minister put the overall total of government land allocated to natives at 890,
626 hectares, a total area larger than Selangor's 795, 600 hectares in all. (Insight
Sabah)
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